


All Wrapped Up In You

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Artist Louis, Bottom Louis, Dirty Talk, Engagement, Established Relationship, Explicit Language, First Dates, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Light Angst, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Mild Smut, Mutual Pining, Smut, Top Harry, United States, Writer Harry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-27 16:44:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6292201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Of course, Bambi,” Louis teases, unlocking the car door and looking over to him. “Now get inside before mother dear comes out here.”<br/>“Was that a pun?”<br/>“Depends, did you like it?”<br/>“Of course.”<br/>“Then, yes it was, and I’m rather proud of myself for coming up with it on the spot. I’ll see you in school Monday, H.”</p><p> <br/><i> or the AU based on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLpDiIVX0Wo">this</a> Extra Gum commercial </i></p>
            </blockquote>





	All Wrapped Up In You

**Author's Note:**

> SO, although this isn't the first piece of writing I've worked on it is the first fic I've ever published in any fandom ever so go easy on me!! It basically all stemmed from the Extra Gum commercial with Hailey Reinhart's cover of I Can't Help Falling and sort of grew into _this_. I'll admit I lost a little steam in the editing process because spring break ends in a day and I have a ton of coursework to catch up on so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ just let me know of any typos or grammatical errors and I'll go back in and fix them up.
> 
> I'd like to thank my two betas [Madison](http://shiningdistraction.tumblr.com/) and [Mcloveoin](http://mcloveoin.tumblr.com/) for working on this completely voluntarily! 
> 
> Hopefully you enjoy it and it can help be a bit of an escape from all this babygate nonsense.

 

 

 

 

♥ April 2016 ♥

  
If Harry could crawl into his locker and lock himself in there he’s sure he would. He’s almost certain that he’s forgotten his math assignment at home, right on his kitchen counter next to the granola bar his stomach is grumbling for right about now. He doesn’t know what’s worse – the fact that he had spent three hours on the worksheet the night before or that he’s going to have to look his teacher in the eye and tell her he doesn’t have his homework. His skin is crawling at the mere idea.

He rustles through all of his folders again, crouched down so he’s eye level with his locker. He had been assigned the top locker in homeroom freshman year, but Aiden had complained about his bad knee for less than two weeks before Harry had offered to switch with him. How was he to know that within the next year and a half he’d grow four inches and have to suffer through having a bottom locker with his gangly limbs?

His search doesn’t seem very promising and he’s giving up hope on finding the paper. Pulling out his 5th and 6th period binders he stuffs them into his backpack. Before he shuts his locker he pulls one last binder out in hopes of finally finding the assignment… and all of his textbooks coming tumbling out onto the floor.

Harry loses his footing in his crouched position and tumbles backwards onto his ass. He closes his eyes at the thought of someone having seen what a klutz he is. And then he hears someone speaking above him.

“I’m sure there has to be somewhere more comfortable to sit during period break than on the tile floor.”

With that, Harry opens his eyes and sees an older boy holding out a hand to him, a kind but somewhat provoking smile on his lips. “Oh, I wasn’t just sitting there,” Harry starts to say. He takes the boy’s hand and uses the support to lift himself up until he’s standing eye to eye with the stranger.

The other boy takes the opportunity to shake Harry’s hand, “I know, I was just messing around. I’m Louis.”

“Harry.”

“Well, Harry,” Louis says, dropping Harry’s hand in favor of bending down to pick up some of the notebooks that had fallen at their feet, “I’d like to thank you for waiting to fall until I turned the corner. It’s been a shit day, and no offense, but you have about as much grace as a newborn deer.”

Harry’s cheeks feel hot as a pink hue crawls across them. He rushes to gather up the textbooks that are in danger of being kicked by other students making their way back to class.

“Yeah, I mean, I’m glad I could help brighten your day,” Harry finally gets out, stacking his school stuff haphazardly and shutting the locker door.

“I believe this is yours,” Louis says, handing Harry his lock.

Harry threads it through the metal loop and fastens it. “Yup, yes, it’s mine. Thank you for, you know, helping me pick up all this stuff. And somehow managing not to laugh.”

Louis giggles at that, hand coming up to delicately brush his honey colored hair off his forehead. “It’s the least I could do.”

Harry isn’t sure how to end this conversation, and although Louis seems really sweet and has pretty eyes and is looking at Harry like he’s waiting for him to say something, his mind keeps wandering back to his missing math homework.

He picks his backpack up off the floor, throwing one strap over his shoulder and awkwardly clearing his throat. “Thanks again, for stopping to help, you didn’t have to do that.”

“I know,” Louis says with a smile, “But my mom’s a pretty big believer in karma and she basically has me scared into doing the right thing all the time. If not, it’ll be me sitting on my ass in the middle of the hallway next week, ya know?”

Harry laughs a bit at Louis’ excitement and reaches into his back pocket for a pack of gum. He offers out the pack to Louis, who reaches out and grabs a piece.

“Well, I appreciate the kindness nonetheless.”

Louis opens his mouth to respond just as the warning bell rings out into the hallway.

“I’m so sorry, I’ve got to make it all the way up to the fourth floor before the second bell rings. Thanks again, Louis!”

“Good luck! Take your time with those stairs though, Bambi, they can be a bit tricky.” With that Harry bites back a giggle that would be far too loud and makes his way past Louis. He turns around just as Louis’ popping the stick of gum into his mouth, smiling in Harry’s direction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥♥♥

The bell sounds and Harry heads out of the classroom, leaning against the wall beside the doorway and waiting for Niall to catch up with him. His cheeks are still a bit pink from the disapproving look Ms. Grey had given him when he hadn’t passed his homework in.

He pulls his phone out and sees that he has a notification on Facebook - a friend request from Louis Tomlinson. Harry’s cheeks keep their flush as he hits accepts. He hopes that Louis hasn’t been telling all of his friends about the dorky sophomore he’d pitied in the hallway earlier that day.

He’s so focused on his screen that he doesn’t even hear Niall walk up to him, and he has to kick at Harry’s feet to get his attention.

“H, come on, let’s get to lunch, I’m not in the mood to sit at the old tables today.”

“Yeah, sorry, I’m coming,” Harry says, pocketing his phone and pushing himself off the wall.

“Heard you made an ass out of yourself earlier.”

“Are you kidding me, how do you already know that? I literally fell five minutes before the bell rang, you were probably already sitting in class!"

"Uh, bro, what are you talking about?"

"... Me falling on my ass in the middle of the hallway earlier in front of at least a dozen and a half people?" Harry says slowly, eyeing Niall suspiciously. "What are you talking about?"

"... Nate said he saw you pushing the pull door over by the staircase in E wing this morning," Niall starts, his resolve slipping as he starts laughing from deep within his chest. "But that is SO much better than what I was talking about, fuck."

Harry bumps his shoulder into Niall’s, sending him straight into the row of lockers to their left.

“Shut up.”

"Ease up, it's not like you don't make an ass out of yourself multiple times a day every school day." They turn the corner to the cafeteria then, throws their bags on the first two empty seats they see and head towards the pizza line, Harry leveling Niall with an unamused glare and rolling his eyes.

They're standing in line talking about Cindy Johnson's new profile picture when Harry sees Louis walking by. He’s with another guy, one who seems to be in the middle of rattling on about something.

Louis smirks at him when he catches Harry looking his way. He doesn't interrupt his friend's story to say hello but he nods his head at him. Harry turns away quickly.

“What was that?”

“What?”

“What was that?”

"What was what, Niall," Harry says, placing a piece of pepperoni pizza on his tray and grabbing a carton of milk from the cooler before the cash register.

“That head nod that Louis Tomlinson just gave you, obviously.”

“How do you know Louis?”

“How do _you_ know Louis?”

Harry presses his school pin number into the pad on the counter and smiles at the lunch lady. He lowers his voice so that she won't hear him when he says, "He kind of saw me fall on my ass earlier like I was telling you. He helped me pick up all my books."

"It's like your life is a real-life sitcom," Niall laughs, throwing the same lunch lady a wink and pushing his and Harry's way back towards their table. "I know Louis from the team, he's a senior I think, just moved here from Maine this year. Pretty decent at baseball."

"You mean I've probably seen his ass in baseball pants at your games before and haven't noticed?"  
Niall rolls his eyes, wipes at his chin with a napkin where the grease from his pizza is dripping. "I guess so, Christ, I'm sort of hoping you at least are pretending to be watching me pitch."

"Of course Nialler, spend the whole time appreciating your curve ball and not checking out any hot guy's butts, no butts whatsoever."

“Ugh, less butt talking when I’m eating, H.”

"You want to come over after school? We can take the bus back to mine and work on Mrs. Joseph’s biology cheat sheet."

"Sure, but I don't want to hear another word about Louis Tomlinson's ass, save it for your journal."

Harry groans around a mouth full of pizza. "It’s not a fucking journal, Ni."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥♥♥

Harry's resolve is crumbling. He physically cannot make it to any of his classes anymore without seeing Louis. It doesn't matter what path he chooses, how early he's in his seat, or whether he avoids going to his locker altogether in favor of lugging all of his books around at once – he sees Louis more than he sees anyone else at that school now.

He thinks there's a word for something like this. Like when your mom buys a new car and suddenly you see that type of car all around town even though you'd never even noticed it before.

Baader-Meinhoff Phenomenon. That's what the word is. The phenomenon of learning a new piece of information and suddenly seeing or hearing about it everywhere.

That's got to be what that is, Harry thinks. He's met Louis and now Louis is everywhere. He bumped into him in the bathroom yesterday, like literally bumped into him. He hadn't been paying any attention when he'd been leaving and had almost toppled him right over.

Louis had just laughed, called him by his name and told him he'd rather not spend his break from class sitting on the tile floor like Harry does.

Before that, Harry had been sitting on the bus and seen Louis standing by his car, with who he imagines by now to be his best friend, since he's with him all the time. He'd been staring out the window and watching them when Louis had looked up and caught him. He couldn't look away fast enough and had settled for waving timidly at him from his seat.

Louis had simply smiled back and given him another one of his signature head nods.

"Niall, I'm dying here."

"H, honestly it's really not that big of a deal, you probably crossed paths with him this often before and never even realized it."

"Exactly! I didn't notice it before. But now I have. And how am I supposed to spend my days trying not to trip over myself in front of the cute senior boy with very, very blue eyes who dresses up for game day?"

That's the worst part about all of this. Harry can survive walking by Louis on normal days, when he's dressed in tight jeans and band tees. Sure, he has to try extra hard not to trip over his own limbs but he's been doing an alright job at that so far. But on game days. Game days have become the bane of Harry's very existence.

It's this weird tradition at North Bay High for the athletes to dress up on game days. His sister Gemma told him it used to just be the football team's thing but it slowly made its way to every sport from cross country to soccer. Male athletes have to dress up on game days – shirt and tie; some even go all out and wear suits when it's an important enough game.

And Louis just likes to go all out regardless of whether it's a big game. Harry hadn't even known they made fitted suit trousers like that for men before he'd seen Louis in them.

"Do you think he's into guys? He's got to be at least interested in guys a little, no straight guys dress that well."

"Hey!" Niall looks up from his textbook and throws his calculator at Harry. "This is a Polo shirt, thank you very much."

Harry raises his hands up in front of his chest in surrender. "Of course. Now back to the matter at hand. What are the chances Louis Tomlinson is both into boys and into boys who are in a league far, far below his own?"

"H, honestly, I'm going to call my pops to pick me up if you don't. Shut. Up."

With that Harry gets hit in the back of the head with a pillow. "Alright, alright, I'm just curious if you ever got a vibe from him, that's all."

"I thought only gay guys are supposed to be able to get vibes from other gay guys, isn't that the whole point of having 'gaydar'," Niall says, chewing on the metal around his pencil's eraser.

Harry rolls his eyes and spins around in his desk chair to face Niall. "No one says gaydar, Ni, I wasn't sure if you'd talked to him enough to hear about a girlfriend. Or more preferably, a boyfriend."

"Haven't spoken to him much. Slapped his ass a few times when he's made it back to home plate and sat next to him at a pasta party once at Josh's place."

"Well, aren't you just the luckiest boy at North Bay High."

"Just ask him out after one of our games one day if you're that interested in him already, H. What's the worst that could happen?"

"I don't know Ni, he could hear me?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥♥♥

Harry tutors English on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school. It’s usually pretty convenient because those are the days Niall has home games and he can normally just head over to the baseball field with his homework and hang around on the bleachers. Niall’s mom always gives him a ride home after the game so it saves his stepdad Robin the hassle of having to come pick him up once in awhile.

There’s no game today so Harry’s in a rush to pack up his stuff. The session went okay, but he’s still pretty sure that Cindy isn’t asking all the questions she has for him. He always finds that the hardest part is getting his classmates to feel comfortable enough to let Harry see how confused they really are.

He throws all his belongings in his bag and heads out of the library, sending a silent wave and a crooked smile to the librarian behind the desk.

He’s in the main lobby when he hears someone calling his name.

He turns around and sees Louis jogging towards him from C wing and he assumes he’s heading from the locker rooms by the gym. Louis’ in practice clothes, worn out joggers and cleats, Nike armbands on both arms.

“Hey, Harry, I was hoping I’d run into you this week,” Louis says, scratching at the hair by the nape of his neck.

Harry adjusts the strap of his backpack on his shoulder and shakes his hair out of his eyes, smiling at Louis. “Hey Louis, what’s up?”

“Just about to head to practice when I saw you walking by, what are you doing here so late?”

“I tutor English in the library a couple days a week.”

“Oh, that’s great, I’m terrible at English, definitely more of a math and science kind of guy.”

“Math and I have a pretty rough relationship,” Harry jokes, looking over his shoulder to see if Robin has pulled up in front of the school yet. “Was there something you needed? I don’t want to keep my stepdad waiting.”

Louis’ face falls a bit and Harry didn’t mean for that to happen so he gives him another gentle smile. “Oh yeah, of course, sorry, I’ve got to head to practice before coach lays in on me again, but I was just wondering if maybe you’d like to go out some time?”

Harry isn’t sure what he was expecting Louis to say, but it certainly wasn’t that. He’d been expecting a joke maybe, or some small talk about the game he’d been at earlier this week but definitely not this. He’s so thrown off that he doesn’t even realize he hasn’t said anything until Louis starts to talk again.

“Or not, I’m sorry?” Louis starts to ramble out, “It’s just, Niall said you were you know, into guys and I just thought, maybe…”

“No, no, of course, yeah, I’d uh love to go out sometime,” Harry says, spitting the words out before Louis can take back his offer.

Louis’ face flushes a bit and he looks down at his cleats. “Alright, yeah awesome, I know you have to get going so I’ll just get your number from Niall after practice? We can figure it all out later.”

“Yeah, sounds great, Louis,” Harry says, biting at his lip to keep his smile from splitting his face. “I should, uh, go see if my stepdad’s here. I’ll talk to you later?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll text you later.” Louis waves at him quickly and heads back down to C wing towards the gym, leaving Harry standing there dumbfounded.

Well, that was unexpected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥♥♥

Harry has been walking around in his boxer briefs for the last hour and a half. Honestly he’s just proud of himself for not still being in a towel since his shower at 4:00.

He doesn’t have a clue what to wear for his date with Louis tonight. He doesn’t even have a clue what they’re doing, just knows that Louis will be here in an hour and a half and he’s still wandering around his room aimlessly.

He walks over to his laptop and turns it on, opens up Spotify and tosses his “Currently Listening To:” playlist on shuffle. Rihanna’s new song _Work_ is the first up and he sways along to the beat while he rummages through his dresser drawers.

He manages to settle on his favorite dark wash jeans and a simple cable knit sweater. He fusses around with his hair a bit in front of the mirror, but seems to spend more time dancing along to Nick Jonas singing _Chains_ than he does actually styling the mop of curls on his head.

He wonders what Louis has planned for them; they barely know each other. It’s hard enough making plans with Niall when they’ve been living in each other’s pockets since primary school.

All he knows about Louis is that he’s kind, that he listens to his mother, and that he plays baseball. He knows that he only just moved here from Maine in the past year and yet every time Harry sees him in the hallway he’s talking to someone and waving to someone else.

It settles Harry’s nerves about tonight that Louis seems to be outgoing. It can take a little while for Harry to feel comfortable around new people and his anxiety would normally be through the roof right now if he thought they’d be struggling to find something to talk about all night.

By the time Harry’s slipping on a pair of old boots there’s a knock on his bedroom door.

“Harry, darling, Louis is at the front door,” his mom’s quiet voice fills his room.

“I’ll be right down!”

Harry scrambles to find his wallet, wants to be able to at least offer to pay even though he can already say with fair certainty that Louis isn’t going to let him. He grabs his jacket off the hook on the back of his door and makes his way downstairs.

“Hi, Louis.”

“Hey, Harry, you ready to go?” Louis is standing next to his mom by the couch in the living room, dressed casually in a pair of black jeans, a shiny grey t-shirt, and a denim jacket. His hair is pushed back off his forehead, which is different, but good. Louis looks good.

“Yeah,” Harry says, opening the front door and waiting for him to walk outside, “Bye mom, see you later.”

“Have fun sweetheart,” his mom calls after them. “Don’t be too late.”

With that it’s just him and Louis. Louis, who is currently standing next to his car in the driveway, holding the passenger side door open and looking at Harry.  
“You ready to go, Bambi?”

“Depends, are you going to call me that all night?”

Louis laughs, holding his hand out towards the car to beckon Harry over. “Well, definitely not as much as I’d like to. I was thinking about taking you roller skating, which I’m sure would have given me ample opportunity to call you Bambi, but I decided on something else.”

Harry watches Louis slide into the driver seat and start his car. It’s nothing nice but it’s still a car and he’s still a senior boy and Harry isn’t sure when high school actually started feeling like high school.

“So... where are you taking us then?”

“Well, depends, are you up for a bit of a car ride?” Louis has his arm on the back of Harry’s headrest and his head angled over his shoulder as he navigates the car out of the driveway.

“Yeah, of course, that’s fine.”

“Well, then, it’s a surprise.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥♥♥

About 45 minutes later Louis is pulling his grey Pontiac into a grassy lot the size of a football field, cars all lined up and down the grassy space.

The ride hadn’t been awkward at all and Harry had felt relieved when the last bits of anxiety had fallen away about twenty minutes into their drive. They had spent the first half of the trip talking about Niall and school and baseball.

Harry had learned that Louis moved to North Bay because his mom had gotten a job offer and houses down here are a lot cheaper than up in Maine. Louis has four sisters and twin siblings on the way, although his mom doesn’t want to know the genders until they’re born. Moving down here had let them get a bigger house and a better education for him and his sisters.

For the last twenty minutes they argued over music, flipping through each other’s playlists and calling the other out. Harry has always loved popular culture, has been obsessed with everything from The Jersey Shore to Keeping Up with the Kardashians, from Justin Timberlake to Lady Gaga.  
Louis had kept insisting that Harry would grow out of that, like he was that much older. Claimed that Harry would someday appreciate artists like KYKO or The Strumbellas.

Harry won’t ever admit it, but he’s pretty sure he’ll add _Spirits_ by The Strumbellas to his playlist when he gets home tonight.

There’s a massive screen on the other side of the lot they’re driving through. Louis pulls his car up next to a small booth and hands the young girl standing inside a $5 bill. There’s a handful of teenage boys in reflective vests waving them forward, directing Louis to a parking spot.

“A drive-in?”

“Yeah, when I first moved here my neighbor Stan and I spent the whole summer driving over here,” Louis explains, straightening the car into the spot and putting it into park. “He’s got a ton of younger siblings too and both our houses were always so loud and busy. So, we started heading down here to hang out instead... Just give me one sec.”

With that Louis takes his seat belt off, pops the trunk, gets out of the cars and walks over to the back. He comes back a minute later with a radio and a grocery bag.

“Now, young Bambi, the key to a good drive-in movie experience is always remembering to bring another radio. The last thing you want is your car battery dying because you’re running the audio through it. Second, always bring candy because the shop over there,” Louis says, pointing across the lot, “charges you more than the movie theaters do.”

Harry cranes his neck over the dashboard to look over at the bright blue and pink barn across the way. It has a big sign on it that says “Snack Shack” and off to the side of it there’s an even bigger sign that says “Mendon Twin Drive-In” with a logo of an animated retro pink car and a listing of all the movies playing in the different lots.

“Reminds me of Grease,” Harry says. “Do they play that video of the dancing hot dog and Hoodsie cups too?”

Harry turns his head from the Snack Shack to Louis, who has stopped in the middle of opening a bag of gummy worms and is staring right at Harry.

“What, have you not seen Grease?” Harry starts to explain what he’s talking about, embarrassed by the dorky reference, “There’s like this commercial they play…”

“No, I know what you’re talking about,” Louis laughs, cutting off Harry mid-ramble. “I just said the same thing when Stan took me here last summer and he had no idea what I was talking about. I felt like a dork, my mom used to sit me in front of the TV when I was little and throw that on to distract me.”

Harry remembers his mom doing the same thing, so often in fact that he had made Niall love the musical growing up too. “Niall and I use to make up dances and show them to my mom, wasn’t until we were in middle school that we realized we shouldn’t be singing a song that says pussywagon in it.”

Louis lets out a laugh at that, pops a sour gummy worm into his mouth and offers one to Harry. “I had a moment like that too, remember singing _Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee_ at recess in fifth grade and getting told I really shouldn’t be singing that. Took me another year or so to realize ‘lousy with virginity’ isn’t really an elementary school friendly lyric.”

“I’m assuming they aren’t showing Grease tonight though?”

“Oh god, I wish,” Louis says, throwing his head back against the headrest, “each lot plays two movies and this one is showing Deadpool first, figured we can just stay for one so it doesn’t get to be too late.”

Harry leans over and steals another handful of gummies. “I guess that’s alright, I didn’t bring my T-Birds jacket anyway so, you know, it wouldn’t have felt right to be watching Grease without it.”

Louis just shakes his head at him and leans forward to set the radio on the dashboard to the right station to get the audio for the movie.

Harry leans back into his seat, watches Louis’ hands work the dials, and bites at his lip to keep himself from smiling too much. He’s fairly certain he can see the start of a smile playing at the corner of Louis’ mouth as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥♥♥

The movie had been just as brilliant as Harry had heard it was from Niall. It had been quite the learning experience too. Harry now knows that Louis is interested in both Ryan Reynolds and Morena Baccarin, rather than just Ryan Reynolds like he is.

They’d also spent a majority of the car ride home arguing over Captain America Civil War and which side they’re on. Louis had insisted that his allegiance had to lay with Team Iron Man because Spiderman has been his favorite superhero since his 5th birthday party.

Harry on the other hand cannot understand how anyone can turn their back on Captain America and Bucky. He’d even tried to convince Louis to switches sides just based on the fact that, even as a gay man, Harry can recognize that Elizabeth Olsen is gorgeous and the Scarlet Witch is definitely better than Black Widow.

That had simply sent Louis onto an absolute rant about how Joss Whedon has ruined the Black Widow in the Marvel cinematic universe that lasted at least fifteen minutes.

They’ve been parked in front of Harry’s house for a few minutes now, finishing up their discussion about the movie when Harry starts to get a bit anxious. He hasn’t done this a lot, the structured dating thing. The whole night had felt so natural and normal, like getting to know Louis was just something he enjoyed doing and not something that was scripted.

Now he isn’t sure what comes next and his palms are starting to sweat. He reaches into the pocket of his jacket and pulls out a piece of gum, is about to unwrap it and place it in his mouth when he realizes how forward that seems – like he’s expecting to be kissed.

He offers it to Louis instead.

“I’m starting to think you’re trying to let me know I have bad breath, Bambi.” Louis takes the stick anyway, placing the wrapper in his cup holder and smiling over at Harry.

“No, not at all, God,” Harry mumbles, “I just always have some on me, feels rude not to offer everyone else a piece.”

Louis smirks at him. “Mmm, and here I thought maybe you were hoping I’d kiss you.”

Harry doesn’t even know what to say, a blush creeps across his cheeks and he can’t even bring himself to look Louis in the eye, doesn’t know if he’s just teasing or not. He’s staring at the wrapper in the cup holder when Louis’ hand comes to lift his chin up.

“I’m just teasing, Bambi, although would it be really stuck up of me to kiss you on the first day?” Louis’ eyeing him closely, looks like he’s trying to read Harry’s face for any signs of discomfort. “I mean, Vanessa and Wade kissed on the first date and that turned out… alright, I guess in some sense of the word.”

Harry just nods his head slightly at Louis, hopes he’ll get what Harry means. He doesn’t want to talk, doesn’t want to say anything that might make Louis reconsider kissing him.

Louis moves his hand up from beneath Harry’s chin, drags his thumb lightly across his lower lip. It’s such a feather-light and quick touch that Harry almost isn’t sure if it actually had happened, and before he can even decide Louis is leaning in and he’s closing his eyes.

The kiss is chaste, nothing more than the slow, gentle movement of his lips against Harry’s, but it’s lovely. Harry had always thought you had to relearn how to kiss each time you kiss someone new. That it took practice to learn what someone else likes, what works between the two of you. He and Louis seem to fit though and Harry seems to think that Louis is getting that vibe too, when he pulls away, lips pink and eyes twinkling up at him.

“You should get inside, I think your mom’s been peeking out from behind the curtains for at least ten minutes now.”

Harry looks over to the clock, 9:59 PM. He’s certain that if he’s not inside by 10:00 PM she’ll even start flipping the walkway lights on. “I had a really nice night Lou, thank you.”

“Of course, Bambi,” Louis teases, unlocking the car door and looking over to him. “Now get inside before mother dear comes out here.”

“Was that a pun?”

“Depends, did you like it?”

“Of course.”

“Then, yes it was, and I’m rather proud of myself for coming up with it on the spot. I’ll see you in school Monday, H.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥♥♥

When Louis first got his license none of his friends back in Maine had had theirs yet. He remembers pulling up to his friend Evan’s house in his Pontiac and feeling so goddamn cool. They had thought he was just fucking around with them when he’d told them that it was his, that all the money he’d saved up working at this little boat shop in town had paid off.

He used to hate dealing with all the customers, answering their seemingly obvious questions about bait or fish hooks. Louis would stand there on his feet for eight hours on Saturdays and Sundays, his back aching, ringing up newspapers and cans of dip.

But it had been worth it in the end, to see the look on his friends faces when he pulled up in his junky little car, a mix tape he’d made earlier that day stuffed in the disc player.

There had also been cons to getting your license first. All of his friends still got picked up at 9:00 by their parents, who didn’t want to stay up late waiting to come get their kids. His mom had never really given him a curfew back then. And he just knew to be home before 11:00 PM or so to keep her from worrying.

So he used to drive around a lot. He’d fill up his tank and take the longest way home from the football game him and his friends had been at, or the party, or his friend’s house, or wherever he’d spent the night. He’d drive through all the surrounding towns and sometimes he’d park by this little boat club in a neighboring town.

He’d get out of his car and walk down to the little swaying dock and sit out there with his headphones in, just taking it all in. Sometimes there would be a couple or two making out in the area and he’d have to find somewhere else, driving around until he ran out of road or music or energy to keep going.

Most of the time the dock was empty and he’d stay out there for a couple of hours.

Before the move he had even started bringing out his sketchpad, grabbing some charcoals and sketching the light of the moon on the pond or one of the boats rocking on the water.

He’d been in that kind of mood after his date with Harry tonight. Wished he was back in Maine driving around the familiar streets. Wished he could have pulled out his sketch stuff and tried to draw the look in Harry’s eyes when he’d been teasing him, wished he could see if he could catch that sort of twinkle in his art.

Louis had driven around for a bit but found his way back home within a half hour or so. So now he’s sitting in the driveway, his driver side window rolled down and his legs hanging outside, feet propped on the side view mirror.

He’s nodding his head along to the radio, his phone playing _Atlantis_ by Seatfret, the gentle strumming of the chords of a guitar filling the silence of the night. He pulls a pen from his cup holder and starts sketching right on the back of the gum wrapper he’d placed there earlier.

He can’t stop thinking about Harry. He’s a lot different than the guys he’d talked to back at Louis’ old school, and he’s only seen one or two girls casually since moving to North Bay. Harry just seems so genuine, seems to be so stuck in his own head that he doesn’t even realize how interesting he is; how kind and funny and horribly dorky he is.

The song coming through the speakers switches over to _Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is_ by The Struts and Louis debates pulling his carton of cigarettes from the glove box and taking a drag. He doesn’t smoke much, just when he has a craving for it. Likes the weight of the cigarette on his teeth and the mind numbing motion of taking a pull. He’s probably heading inside soon enough though and he doesn’t want his mom to smell it on him.

Louis waits for the final notes of the song to cut out before pulling his key out of the ignition and heading up to his bedroom, thoughts about a curly haired boy and taking a chance bumping around in his head...

 _I bet your body’s so sweet_  
_So roll your dice at my feet_  
_Well when and where our eyes meet_  
_You’ve got that hand I can’t beat_  
_So put your money on me_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥ June 2016 ♥

Everyday Louis is a little more relieved that he took a chance and asked Harry out that random April day after school. After their first date things sort of just fall into place. He and Stan had started sitting with Harry and Niall at lunch a week or two later. A few other guys from the team had joined them, but Louis was just happy to get a chance to talk to Harry most days.

Harry has also been at all of his games, but Louis thinks he has Niall to thank for that. Harry’s always up in the bleachers cheering louder than his sisters. He’s pretty sure he cheers even louder for Niall, just so he doesn’t get offended.

It’s been unusually warm this spring and April, May, and June fly by in a whirlwind of ice cream dates, pick-up wiffleball games, and days spent by the pond. His senior slide is pretty much complete and he hasn’t opened a notebook in a couple of weeks, but as it’s Harry’s sophomore year he’s still swamped with homework this late in the semester.

It gives Louis some time to hang out with Stan and his other friends. It’s wild that he’s only just met them this time last year, and that he’ll already be leaving them in a couple of months for college. Stan is going out of state, got a scholarship to play baseball at UConn, but luckily it’s only about an hour and a half drive from here so he’ll be able to make a weekend trip when he’s feeling up for it.

Louis had chosen somewhere more local, had worked his ass off working on his portfolio to get into Suffolk University’s art and design program. He can honestly say he never wants to see the inside of the art rooms at North Bay High ever again after he graduates.

But the school is local and he’d gotten a decent scholarship for some work he’d submitted earlier in the year so he’ll live on campus freshman year. He’d made all of these decisions before he had even met Harry but he can’t help but think about the fateful way that it all played out. He’ll be close enough next year that they can stay together if they decide to, but he’s getting ahead of himself.

It’s a warm June day and the two of them are having a picnic, per Harry’s request, at a lake in a nearby town. Louis can admit that it is the most poorly planned picnic to ever happen at this very lake. They had thrown a couple blankets in the trunk of Louis’ Pontiac and grabbed whatever snacks they could steal from their moms.

Louis had stopped at a donut shop on the way to Harry’s, bought a dozen different donuts to try, making sure to get one powdered donut for Harry. They’re lying out on a blanket together, sunglasses perched on top of their noses and plastic cups of lemonade in their hands.

“I’m pretty sure this is the hottest summer of our lives,” Harry says, whipping powdered sugar off of his basketball shorts.

“Hmm, I don’t know Haz,” Louis replies, “I remember the summer of my sophomore year, it was so fucking hot all the time in Maine that I didn’t even want to go out on the boat because I knew I’d be frying.”

“Oh no, you didn’t want to go out on your precious boat,” Harry teases, “whatever would you do with yourself.”

Louis sticks his tongue out at him, used to all the teasing he gets from Harry about being from Maine. There’s not much to do up there so he’d gone fishing a lot and most of his friends would drag him along ATVing and hiking. Harry seems to find it hilarious since Louis was never really a huge fan of those things and they don’t really fit his personality all that well.

Harry lays back on their blanket and tosses a t-shirt over his face, the sun so bright that his sunglasses aren’t doing enough to keep the light out. Louis pulls out his sketchbook from his backpack and starts sketching something abstract, trying to get away from drawing things the way they look and working on drawing them the way they make him feel.

He can hear little puffs of breath coming from Harry and he can tell he fell asleep, too warm and sleepy from a day spent under the rays of the sun. He shuffles onto his side, always sleeps better like that, and the t-shirt falls from his face.

Louis’ about to put it back over him, keep him from baking in the sun but he stops himself. He flips through his pad until he finds a blank spot and starts to sketch Harry’s sleeping face. He’d never really liked drawing people, was always afraid he wouldn’t be able to capture their features right. Everyone’s so subtly different when it comes to sketching. But right now Louis thinks that the fear of not capturing Harry in the moment is even worse than capturing it wrong.

A while later Harry opens his eyes from his light sleep. “Ugh, can’t stand falling asleep randomly Lou, you should have woken me up. Now I have nap mouth, bleh.”

“Nap mouth?” Louis questions. Harry sits up in place, tongue moving around in his mouth uncomfortably as he shifts through his stuff on the blanket.

“Yeah, you know, like morning breath but you only get it when you take a nap,” Harry explains, pulling a stick of gum from the pack he’d found placed inside one of his shoes off to the side. He offers up a piece to Louis and puts another in his mouth.

“You’re something else, Bambi.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥ August, 2016 ♥

“Do you think if you had moved here earlier we’d have started dating sooner?” Harry asks, shifting around on the blanket he has laid out on the lawn in his backyard. He’s always done this, grabbed all of his things and brought them outside when it gets too stuffy in his bedroom on humid summer nights.

He’s lying on his back with his side pressed against Louis’. He used to come out here alone, bring a book to read or the bluetooth speaker his mom had bought him for his birthday a few years ago. He’d fall asleep out here and wake up to the neighborhood children riding scooters up and down the street or Robin starting up the lawnmower.

Louis had discovered that he liked to spend most nights out here, whether or not he fell asleep beneath the stars, and had started to visit most nights. Usually the nights were spent making out, slow and lazy, only stopping when one of them starting smiling too much.

Louis shifts beside him, seems to be mulling Harry’s question over in his mind. “I’m not sure H, kind of think it is what it is. Even if I had moved to North Bay earlier, I still wouldn’t have met you until I turned that corner in the hallway in May I suppose.”

Harry thinks about what Louis had said, thinks he prefers it this way. Likes knowing that they’d found each other the same year Louis had moved here. Doesn’t like that idea of them both being at the same school for so long without knowing it.

“Suppose you’re right,” Harry says, sitting up and running a hand through his messy curls. “Just wish we’d had longer than a couple weeks before you have to leave for college.”

Louis pulls himself up at that comment, motions for Harry to come closer to him, fits his back against Louis’ chest. He takes a deep breath, nose nestled in Harry’s curls while he thinks about what to say.

“I’ve told you, Bambi, campus is only 15 minutes away,” Louis explains, voice low and soothing while his arms pull Harry’s closer by the waist, “it’s not like I’m going out of state and we’re rushing into something serious and long distance. I’ll be right down the street, you’ll be sick of how often you see me. Plus I’ll have my car on campus because I have to keep working to help my mom pay for tuition.”

Harry snuggles closer to Louis, lets his head drop back against Louis’ chest and pulls one of his hands up to his lips to press a kiss to his knuckles. “I know, just feels like I’m holding you back or something, I don’t know.”

“Turn around,” Louis says. Harry shuffles around in Louis’ arms until they’re facing one another, all tangled up in the thin blanket. “Want you to listen to me, okay?”

Harry nods in agreement and waits for Louis to continue speaking, stomach all in knots. He wants to be selfish, wants to just accept that Louis wants to stay with him, that being in a relationship your freshman year of college is okay. But he can’t help but worry, to think about Louis resenting him for missing out on a normal college experience.

“I’m not going to resent you for staying with me when I leave for college next week,” Louis says, almost as if he’s reading Harry’s thoughts. “I want this. And it’s a bit early to say this but I might always want this. Feels like we’ve been seeing each other forever, H. I’m not going to let that go just because there’s this faulty idea that everyone in college is fucking all the time.”

Harry takes a deep breath at that, feels his chest fill with the sticky sweet nighttime air, and smiles. Louis puts his forehead against his own and whispers more soothing words and Harry feels some of his doubt start to seep away. He bumps their noses together, shifts his face up and breaths slowly, willing Louis to kiss him.  
He does, of course. He kisses him slowly and deep, kisses so much faith into him that Harry wonders how his brain could even come up with half the negative scenarios that have been running through his mind all week. Harry opens up for him, lets Louis’ tongue sweep inside, warm and wet and so familiar even though they’ve only known each other for so long.

They pull apart a while later, foreheads still pressed together while they catch their breath. Harry pulls back first, can’t help but smile at the wrecked look on Louis’ face just from kissing him. He pulls at his own lower lip with his thumb and giggles at how swollen they are, at how lovely Louis is. Louis starts to laugh with him, pulls them back down onto their backs, his arm tucked around Harry’s neck.

Harry reaches into his pocket and turns his body into Louis’. He places a gentle kiss on Louis’ mouth and then pulls back to place a stick of gum on his tongue.

Settling onto his back again Harry closes his eyes. He tilts his head a bit to lean into Louis’ shoulder and lets his mind wander again. This time he doesn’t worry about regret and commitment but about a future with this boy he’s all wrapped up in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥ November, 2016 ♥

Harry and Niall would visit Louis at Suffolk most weekends if his mother wasn’t so adamant about him “spending time with his friends from home” which is a bit ridiculous because he normally just spent most of his time with Niall anyway.

Regardless, they make their way up to Louis’ dorm every other weekend or so. Louis’ roommate Liam is actually one of his best friends that he’s made up here. Louis claims that everyone is best friends with their roommate freshman year and that by next year he won’t even talk to him. But Harry can see the way they get along, how Louis shows more affection to Liam than he likes to let on.

Niall and Liam have actually grown quite close as well. Harry wasn’t really expecting it, because Niall is so outgoing and a bit of a handful and Liam is rather serious about his schoolwork and isn’t one for big crowds of people. But the two of them wander off on their own a lot now when the four of them find themselves at a party or one of the handful of bars in the city that is very generous at not checking IDs.

Harry supposes that Niall and Liam didn’t really have a choice whether to be friends or not, because Louis keeps kicking them both out of his dorm at least once during their weekend trips. Which is what he did about ten minutes ago, handing Liam a $20 bill and telling him to “go off and feed young Niall, let him experience late night pizza in the city.”

Harry can feel his body pumping warm blood all throughout, a subtle buzz still hanging over him like a fog. He feels slow and languid but charged and on edge at the same time, Louis’ mouth covering his, his tongue poking inside Harry’s mouth.

Harry pushes his body back, shuffling a bit on Louis’ bed until his back is pressed up against the wall. Louis follows him, nipping lightly at the sensitive skin on Harry’s neck. He can feel him nosing at his throat, his breath coming out softly and tickling the curls that are starting to reach Harry’s shoulders. Harry lets out a giggle at that, brings his shoulder up to his neck and cuts off Louis’ path to the sensitive patch of skin.

Louis climbs on top of him. “Silly boy, always giggling when I’m trying to seduce you,” he says, legs straddling either side of Harry’s thighs, bum sat right on Harry’s lap. Harry thinks about this all week in class, Louis sat on top of him. All soft and squirming, begging for Harry to let him kiss him, to let him put his hands all over him.

“Well maybe if your technique for seduction wasn’t squirming around on my lap and tickling me I wouldn’t giggle so much,” Harry says, hands coming up to massage at Louis’ thighs. Louis’ eyes follow his touch, then find their way back to Harry’s. Silently asking for more, asking for his touch somewhere else.

When Harry doesn’t make to move his hands further up his thighs Louis shifts in Harry’s lap. He pulls his shirt up over his head, tosses it off towards his desk. Soft skin all on display, the very very faint traces of last summers tan still clinging to his skin. Harry shuffles forward a bit, presses a kiss to Louis’ chest, lets his tongue linger on the skin. Thinks if he tries hard enough he might be able to taste the salt water still lingering from their beach trips a few months ago.

“Hmm, seems like my techniques for seduction are working just fine,” Louis teases, threading his hands through his curls when Harry takes one of his nipples into his mouth. A small gasp leaves his lips as Harry starts to swirl his tongue around the bud.

Not even a minute later Louis is back to squirming, and Harry can feel him hot and hard against his own groin. He can tell Louis can’t decide on whether he wants to settle his hands in Harry’s hair or pull at his joggers, beg Harry to get him naked. Harry can take a hint. He pats at Louis’ bum, “Alright, up.”

Louis follows his command, gets up onto his knees on the bed and lets Harry pulls his sweatpants down, fingers teasing at the band of his boxers before pulling those down with them. While Louis is kicking off his clothes Harry pulls his shirt up over his head and tosses his pants onto the floor, hands coming up to touch at Louis’ naked skin reflexively.

Louis’ about to crawl back into Harry’s lap when he stops him. “Music?” Harry asks.

He doesn’t mind knowing that there are other people up and down the hallway of Louis’ dorm, but he doesn’t like the idea of any of them hearing Louis, hearing the sounds that Harry’s learned to pull from him in the past seven or so months. Louis kisses him gently on the forehead, “of course, love,” and hops off the bed to turn a playlist on.

Harry absolutely does not start to touch his cock while watching Louis’ bum sway to the first few notes of a song while he’s setting up the list.

Harry absolutely does.

Louis turns around and his eyes fall on Harry’s hand working over himself, slow and sensual and just like Louis wants it to be working over himself. He smirks at him, bites back a giggle when Harry wiggles his eyebrows at him, and makes his way back onto Harry’s lap.

They kiss like that for a few minutes, skin to skin and rolling their hips against one another. Harry knows that Louis gets impatient, just wants to come and doesn’t care how it happens or how quick it’s over. But he also knows that Louis loves to be teased sometimes, taken apart until he can’t take it any more.

Tonight though Louis just wants to be fucked. Harry can tell by the way he’s grabbing at Harry’s hands, pinning them above his head against the wall, and kissing him hard. Can tell that Louis wants to be in control tonight.

Louis leans over and grabs the bottle of lube and a condom from the desk pressed up against the end of the bed. He lets Harry kiss at his neck while he opens the bottle, pours some of the lube onto his fingers. Harry can feel Louis’ breath catch in his throat when he gets a finger into himself, so he bites harder at the skin at the dip of Louis’ shoulder that he’s been working over with his tongue. He licks over the purple bruise that’s forming while Louis opens himself up.

He keeps his hands to himself. If he had it his way he’d flip Louis on to his stomach and pull his orgasm out of him with just his fingers. Then he’d let him sit himself down on Harry’s cock and work himself up and down, so sensitive that he’s fighting back tears and pulling at Harry’s hair.

But he knows Louis would just bat his hand away if he reached behind him now. Knows he just wants to work himself open. So Harry works at making it good for him. He whispers, “That’s it, baby, you getting yourself ready for me?”

Louis lets out a whine at that, arching his back and breathing heavy. “Look so good like that, getting yourself ready for me,” Harry says, blowing cool air on Louis’ nipples while he rocks back and forth in his lap. ‘Been thinking about this all week, almost pulled you right down on my lap earlier with the boys still here.”

Louis’ mouth catches his at that, he bites roughly at Harry’s lower lip while he pulls his fingers out of himself. He keeps his arm behind himself though, mouth catching Harry’s moans when he grabs at his cock with his slippery hand.

Harry reaches for the lube, hands fumbling around the sheets with his eyes closed still kissing Louis. “Hurry up, come on, want you in me, please,” Louis whines, “Please, missed you all week.”

"Yeah? You missed me?” Harry teases as he pours some more lube on his cock. The both of them are working him over when Harry says, “Or did you just miss my cock? Miss being full, miss my hands all over you.”

Louis moans when Harry drags the head of his dick along his ass, so so wet and so so ready to get fucked already. “Missed it all, missed sleeping next to you, and your cock, fuck.” Louis keeps grinding back against him, arms wrapped around Harry’s neck to keep himself from falling apart on his lap.

Harry rolls the condom on while he peppers Louis’ shoulder in kisses, pulls his cheeks apart with his hands and starts to push in. “Fuck yes, finally.”

“Feel so good baby, opened yourself up so nicely for me,” Harry murmurs, “Can’t believe you’re mine, my boy.”

Louis huffs at that, rolling his hips a bit now that he’s fully seated on Harry’s lap. “You’re _my_ boy.”

“Mmm, okay baby, you’re my man then,” Harry says, thrusting just a bit to get Louis used to the stretch, hand moving to Louis’ hole to feel where their bodies meet.

"And your man is going to make himself come now, okay babe?” Louis groans, throwing his head back and lifting himself up all the way just to let himself slide back down.

“Don’t have to miss me anymore, baby. Make yourself come. Want to make you feel good, let you have anything you want.”

Louis whines at that, starts to fuck himself harder on Harry’s cock. Pulling out until he’s clenching around the head and then sliding all the way back down. The closer he gets to coming the closer he pulls himself to Harry. Their bodies are flush against each other, Harry sitting up straight and pushing deep inside Louis each time he fucks himself back down.

Louis’ making all these breathy moans and he’s grinding his hips down to the rhythm of whatever song is playing out into the room. Harry’s so hard that he doesn’t know how he hasn’t come yet, wants to thrust into Louis one more time and come deep inside him, feel him clench around his cock.

But he can’t yet, can’t come when Louis is panting into Harry’s hair, chanting “wanna come, please,” over and over. Harry can tell he’s getting tired so he places his hands under Louis’ bum, hoists him up a bit and changes the angle. Louis’ hand comes up to slap at the wall when Harry hits his spot, sends Louis’ cock twitching against his belly.

“Gonna come,” Louis gasps, hand coming between their bodies to toy with the head of his cock.

“Yeah baby gonna make you come,” Harry chokes out. “Feel so good, want you to come all over us, Lou, love you so much.”

With that Louis’ breath catches on a gasp as he comes on both of them, warm and wet and so so good. Harry fucks him through it, makes his thrusts slower and deeper and milks Louis’ orgasm out of him for all it’s worth it. A minute later he’s buried deep in Louis’ ass, cock pulsing into the condom while Louis mouths wetly at his ear.

Louis lifts himself off of Harry’s cock, pulls the condom gently off and tosses it into the trashcan. He pulls some tissues from the desk to wipe up a bit before they get up and shower later. He wipes down Harry a bit too, humming softly to the Tom Petty song coming through his speaker.

Harry gets up and pulls the old blanket off the top of Louis’ bed, balls it up and tosses it into the hamper across the room. He pulls back the comforter and blankets and makes grabby hands at Louis to come cuddle.

“We should really go shower before the boys get back,” Louis says.

Harry keeps his arms outstretched and Louis eventually caves, lays down next to Harry in his bed and curls his arms around him. “Just cuddle me for a minute.”

They’re still asleep in Louis’ bed under the covers when Niall and Liam get home with leftover pizza a half hour later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥ December, 2017 ♥

One Year Later

Last winter had been so mild that Louis had almost forgotten what a New England winter really felt like. One of the reasons he’s always loved the east coast is because of the way the weather makes you appreciate everything you have.

There’s nothing quite like the first warm day in the spring, the feeling of warmth on your skin as the sun breaks through the clouds for the first time in months. He’s not sure what it would be like to live somewhere where you can see the grass all year round and it’s exciting to get your bare feet used to the Earth again after a cold winter.

Last winter had been so mild that Louis had forgotten how incredibly quiet the world gets when you’re standing outside in the snow. It’s snowing pretty heavily now and his sisters had been so excited to have another white Christmas after last year had disappointed them.

Louis’ knocking at Harry’s front door. The roads are in pretty bad conditions, most of the plows taking the night off and pledging to go out on Christmas day instead. Louis can’t say he blames them for wanting to spend some time with their families. But he had promised to let Harry give him his birthday gift on his birthday so he’d walked the few blocks over to see him, not chancing the 2 wheel drive on his Pontiac on the streets.

Harry opens the door, and to Louis’ surprise, steps outside to kiss him on the front steps.

Louis brings his mitten covered hands up to cup Harry’s cheeks, warming them in his palms. “Hmm, I don’t think I see any mistletoe out here, Bambi.”

Harry flushes and Louis is still so amazed at the way he can affect this boy, at the way he can turn him pink against all the whiteness outside. “Happy Birthday, Lou.”

Louis feels a gift pressed into his hands and places another light kiss on Harry’s nose. “Thank you, love, and Merry Christmas Eve.”

“Want you to open it out here,” Harry whispers into Louis’ mouth, still pressing kisses to his icy lips. Louis would probably spend the night outside if it were to make Harry happy, so he pulls one of his gloves off and gets to work ripping off the wrapping paper.

It’s a small box, and when Louis takes off the lid he sees two tickets inside. He looks up at Harry, who’s staring at him with a small smirk on his lips. “What did you get me?”

"Why don’t you look at the tickets and see for yourself, baby.”

Louis flips the tickets over and sees that they’re for Jamie Scott’s show in New York in a couple of weeks, right before he has to go back to school in Boston. He stares at them for a bit before jumping up and down in excitement. “I cannot believe that you managed to get these, I’ve been dying to see him!”

“I know, I had to pretend to be upset when you couldn’t manage to get tickets it was awful!” Harry laughs, “I figured you already knew what it was gonna be, I have the worst poker face.”

“Ugh, no I had no idea,” Louis says, placing the tickets into the inner pocket of his snow jacket. “God, I love you, thank you so much, babe.”

Harry flushes under the praise, eyes closing when Louis starts kissing all over his face. The snow is still coming down, but it’s lightened up a bit and everything seems so slow and quiet. Louis can hear the sound of Harry’s heart beating in his chest, can hear the shallow breaths he’s taking every time Louis presses a kiss to his skin.

“He’s not coming to Boston,” Harry explains, “But I figured we could take a little trip over to New York for the weekend to see him. Got a room in Time Square so we can be awful tourists.”

“So sweet of you.” Louis says. “I can’t wait, thank you again. You’re too good to me, don’t even want to give you your Christmas present tomorrow now.”

Harry rolls his eyes at that, “I’m sure that’s not true, you know I cry no matter what I get as a gift anyway.” Harry pulls his own gloves off, sticking them in his pocket and pulling out his pack of gum instead. “It was nothing, really, now let’s get inside it’s freezing out here.”

Harry places a piece of gum in his mouth and another unwrapped stick into the palm of Louis’ ungloved hand. Before they head back inside Louis can’t help but to smile up at this boy he’s known for over a year, who always listens to him, who he cares so deeply for. This boy with the curly hair and the bright white smile and the terribly endearing habit of chewing way too much gum. His boy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥ August, 2018 ♥

It’s just _different_ and that makes it challenging and stressful and a little bit nerve-wracking. They’ve been together for so long now, more than two and a half years of being an us, of being HarryandLouis.

But so much of their relationship has been Louis living at college and Harry back at home and now they’re moving in together and it’s just a lot.

Harry is sorting through all of their boxes while Louis is out picking up some take-out for them to have for dinner. They’ve been at it all day and yet it seems like they still have more stuff in boxes than they do unpacked and put away.

Most of Harry’s stuff is already all sorted and put into the right rooms, but a ton of it is still sealed up in opened boxes. It was a bit easier for him, moving straight from his mom’s house to here. Everything had been in one place and it was easy enough to get it all here in an organized way.

Louis’ shit is everywhere. He was moving his stuff from his old storage unit with all his college stuff and all his stuff from his mom’s house as well. And it’s Louis. His shit is always everywhere.

Harry figures he can start sorting through Lou’s boxes, at least get them into the right rooms of their apartment.

Their place isn’t big and it’s a bit of a hike from campus, but they both have cars and the street isn’t too busy so it’s easy enough for them to both find parking. The apartments quite narrow but it’s two floors.

The first floor is a tiny little hallway that you walk through to get to a small room with a couch and a television, the kitchenette visible through an open hole in the wall. Most of the place is carpeted except for the kitchen, which has some old ceramic blue tiles laid down.

There’s a rickety old wooden staircase that hugs the wall behind the couch and leads to their bedroom and bathroom upstairs. The one bedroom takes up most of the second floor so it’s a decent enough size for the both of them to keep their stuff.

Harry heads upstairs with some light boxes that he images must be filled with clothes. He places them on the unmade up bed and looks around.

The room’s a light cream color, their landlord explained that they’re not allowed to paint when their lease isn’t for more than 5 years so he keeps the colors neutral. The bed frame the last tenants had left is actually quite nice. It has a simple deep wooden look, a shelf on top of the headboard that Harry has already unpacked some stuff onto; phone charges and an old alarm clock from back at his mom’s.

He feels a thrill of excitement course through him at the thought of him and Louis finally have their own bed. They’ve been living in each other’s beds for years, Louis staying at Harry’s when he was home from campus and Harry spending weekends in Louis’ twin-sized beds in his dorms.

Heading back downstairs Harry starts opening some of the other boxes Louis left messily stacked by their couch. Their couch. It feels strange that everything in this little apartment is theirs, HarryandLouis’.

He’s still sorting through Louis’ belongings, sorting them into piles like he should have done when he was packing them, when Louis comes in with his arms full of take-away bags.

Louis balances the bags on his hip while shuffling to kick his shoes off. “Little help here, love.”

"Course,” Harry says, taking the bags and bringing them over to their little kitchen table. He pulls some paper plates from the box on top of the stove and starts making up two plates.

Louis shuffles up behind him, wraps his arms around Harry’s waist and places a light kiss behind his ear. “Smelled so good in the car I actually considered pulling over and eating without you.”

Harry puts the fork down and turns around in Louis’ arms, pouting down at him exaggeratedly.

"Oh come off it with the pout babe,” Louis jokes. “Clearly I love you too much and suffered through the whole drive without even sneaking a crab rangoon.”

With that Harry smiles, grabs a crab rangoon from the plate off to the side of him and holds it out for Louis to bite into. They’re disgusting. Harry loves them.

Louis smiles up at him with his eyes, mouth too busy biting into the food, tongue coming out to lick at the filing on his lips. Harry pops the rest of the piece into his own mouth, grabs both their plates and heads back out to the living room.

They’re sitting cross-legged on the living room floor, stuffed full of Chinese food, and sorting through Louis’ never ending boxes when they start arguing.

"Honestly, Lou, half this shit could have just stayed at Jay’s,” Harry scoffs. “Do you really think we need to waste room with your old baseball cards and trophies? Our place isn’t that big.”

“Oh right, H, I forgot we needed to save room for every book you’ve read since first grade and haven’t friggen opened since.”

Harry rolls his eyes at that, standing up and stretching his legs. “I had one box of books Louis, one, I think I just went through two and a half boxes of old Disney movies that you brought. Do we even have a VCR?”

Louis stacks their plates on top of one another with more force than necessary and heads into the kitchenette, slapping the cabinet beneath the sink that hides their trash barrel. He looks through the opening of the wall at Harry. “Sorry, Bambi, figured we might want to watch a movie sometime.”

With that Harry’s heart drops a little, realizing that Louis was trying to be sweet, to bring all of Harry’s favorite Disney movies so they could watch them sometime. Like they had back in high school when they first stated dating.

Harry had eventually told Louis he’d never even seen Bambi, and Louis had been rightfully outraged. With that many younger sisters and a love for all things animated, Louis had been obsessed with Disney as a child. He remembers spending a whole weekend in Louis’ basement watching movies and sharing kisses, ears alert to the sound of Jay’s footsteps upstairs.

The faucet is running in the other room and Harry can see Louis hunched over the sink, shoulders tense. He sits down on the couch, closes his eyes and lets the stress of the day and the move and his nerves settle in his bones.

He feels the couch sink under Louis’ weight a few minutes later. He peeks out from his closed eyes and sees him staring ahead, chewing thoughtfully on his lip.

Harry shifts in his seat, pulls his pack of gum from its permanent place in his back pocket and he can hear Louis snort a bit. He pulls Louis’ feet from where they’re perched on the coffee table and puts them in his own lap. He holds out a stick of gum as a peace offering. “I’m sorry, baby.”

Louis takes the piece from him, chews slowly as he twiddles the wrapper around his index finger. “S’okay, love, I know.”

“... Can we have a Disney marathon once we’re all unpacked?”

That pulls a smile out of Louis, a breathy laugh escaping his lips. “Of course, Haz, how about we go set up the bedroom first?” He stands up, holding an outstretched hand for Harry to grab, much like the first time Harry had ever met him.

Harry looks up at him, a small smile pulling his lips upward. “Let’s.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥♥♥

A few hours later and almost all of the cardboard boxes are out by the dumpster behind their building. Their bed is all made up and the cables working on the both TVs, the one in their room and the one in the living room.

A bunch of their stuff is still stacked around the apartment, but at least it’ll motivate them to put it all away within the rest of the weekend. They'll have to get it done before their moms are flooding their phones with texts asking if they can stop by to visit.

Louis makes his way downstairs to lock up, pads over to the front door and fastens the deadbolt. His vinyls are piled up beside the couch and he walks over to them. Ray LaMontagne’s album Gossip in the Grain is sitting on top and he pulls the record out of its sleeve. He walks over to the record player on the table beneath the television and puts the needle on it. _You Are the Best Thing_ plays softly from the speakers as the record starts rotating on the pad.

He putts around the living room cleaning up bits of trash here and there while Harry is in the shower upstairs. It’d be a long day and he’s actually rather happy with the way it had gone. Aside from their little argument they’d gotten a lot done and he’s just so happy to finally fall asleep tonight knowing that there’s no deadline on this. Harry doesn’t have anywhere else to be, he doesn’t have anywhere else to be, and they can both spend the next two years in this little apartment working on their degrees.

A few minutes later he hears Harry making his way down the stairs behind him, right as the lyrics of _Let It Be Me_ start to fill their little living room. He walks over to Harry, who’s standing there with wet hair and a sleepy smile and nothing but a pair of boxer briefs on. Louis places a gentle kiss to his lips and pulls him in by the hips.

Harry’s arms find their way to Louis’ neck without much convincing. They start to sway to the music then, just the two of them in this tiny hallway of a room. Harry’s curls dripping lukewarm water onto Louis’ sweater as he drops his head to rest on Louis' shoulder.

 _If it’s a friend you need,_  
_Let it be me,_  
_Let it be me._

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥ June, 2022 ♥

Four Years Later

Harry's in their bedroom sorting through some of his hoodies when it starts.

Between him and Louis they have a pretty large collection and Harry has to decide which to bring with him and which to leave behind. And then there's Louis. He has to decide which ones Louis can live without, which ones Louis will want him to leave behind even if he would never say it.

He hadn’t even thought he’d get the internship in London when he’d applied at the end of his senior year. He figured it was worth throwing his resume at anyone who would catch it, but he hadn’t imagined that the magazine in London would ever give him a chance. He just walked across the stage two weeks ago and now he already has to get on a plane to England next week and the pressure is starting to wear on him.

He's placing a worn out Green Bay Packers hoodie in the pile of clothes-to-keep-in-Massachusetts, much to his dismay, when Louis starts yelling his name.

"Harrrrrry, babe?"

They've had this fight a million times, Harry can't stand when people try to talk to him when they're in a different room, let alone on a different floor.

"Harrrrrry." He rolls a sweatshirt up into a tight bundle. His mom had sent him a picture a few days ago on the best way to pack clothes to save space.

"Haaaazzzaaa." Harry rolls his eyes, placing the pile of hoodies he'll leave for Louis back into the closet and sliding the door closed.

"Haaaaaz." And honestly, now it's driving Harry mad because Louis is doing it on purpose and he knows how stressed Harry is right now from all the packing and the planning and the organizing.

Regardless, he heads down the stairs to make the incessant yelling stop. He doesn't understand how his mother used to hold out when he was a teenager. He'd be in his room yelling mom from over a half an hour before giving up and heading out into the living room to ask what was for dinner. He smiles at the memory, but Harry wishes he hadn't picked up on his mother's pet peeve over the years.

When he makes his way downstairs he spots Louis upside down on the couch, feet kicking up over the back, Extreme Makeover: House Edition playing on the flat screen behind him.

"Hi, love," he smiles, pulling his body right side up onto the cushions.

Harry settles him with an unamused glare and Louis' face falls instantly. But Harry knows him and he knows he's playing that puppy dog face on purpose.

"Yes, dear," Harry says sarcastically, putting on his best house-wife-tone.

"C'mere," Louis murmurs, patting the cushion next to him.

And who is Harry to deny him anything when he looks so soft and sleepy, wearing a loose jumper and a pair of sweatpants.

The second his body hits the couch there's a pair of legs straddling his own, Louis warm and pliant in his lap. Harry's hands settle on his hips on their own volition. "What is it baby?"

Louis doesn't say anything, just presses his front close to Harry's, settles his face in Harry's neck and takes a shaky breath.

Harry rubs at Louis' back lightly, feels his own body relax, the pressure of the move melting off of him and settling somewhere deep in the couch cushions. He thinks Louis might just fall asleep like this, nosing lightly at the curve of his neck, his arms wrapped tightly around him.

But he pulls back a few minutes later, a heavy sigh leaving his chest, and pulling at his lower lip with his teeth. He shuffles around on Harry's lap for a moment, and Harry takes the opportunity to grab his pack of gum from the pouch of his hoodie.

He pops a piece into Louis' mouth and then does the same for himself. Louis reaches out and takes the wrappers from him, smooths them out with his fingertips and places them behind him on their beat up coffee table.

Louis brings a hand to Harry's face, thumbs lightly at his jaw and leans forward to place a light kiss to his lips.

"What was that for?"

"Was watching TV and the parents were kissing and I just wanted to kiss you. And I knew I could. Knew I could just call you and you'd come and I could kiss you," Louis says, "Always wanna kiss you."

Harry kisses him lightly on the nose, then on each eyelid when they flutter shut from how gentle the moment is, "Always wanna kiss you too baby"

"I'm going to miss you"

"I know," Harry murmurs, pulling Louis chest to chest with him and taking a deep breath, "I'm going to miss you too, so much."

"S'gonna suck." Louis says into the material of Harry's sweatshirt.

"Yeah, it really is."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥♥♥

Harry’s mom and stepdad are standing behind him and he wishes that he had thought to say goodbye properly back at their apartment when they were alone.

Because all Louis wants to do is kiss Harry senseless right now, to sob into that warm stretch of skin by the curve of his neck. But he can’t do that in front of Anne and Robin. Or, at least he _won’t_ do that in front of them.

He grabs both of Harry’s hands in his own, pulls one after the other up to his lips and kisses his knuckles gently. “You’ll call me right when you land right?”

“Course, Lou.”     

“And you remembered to pack the outlet adapters right? Your phone will probably die on the plane and you’ll want to be able to charge it when you land, and…”

Harry cuts him off with a kiss, puts his hand on Louis’ jaw and shushes him low enough that the others won’t be able to hear. “I’ve got it, Lou, I promise.”

“What about gum?” Louis teases, but his voice comes out deep and throaty and a lot less casual than he had meant. “Don’t want your cute little ears to hurt when the plane takes off.”

Harry takes his hands back from Louis’ with that, pulls two packs from his back pocket and holds them up for Louis to see. “Even brought back-ups just in case.”

He holds the open pack out to Louis, places them back into his back pocket and brushes Louis’ hair off of his forehead once he's taken a piece.

“It’s going to be okay, baby, it’s just six months,” Harry says, looking over his shoulder as other passengers start to make their way towards the gates. “Gonna miss you every day I’m gone but it’s gonna be okay, ya?”

And Louis knows he’s trying to sound sure, but he can hear the silent plea in his voice. Can hear him silently asking Louis to wait for him, to suffer through this separation for him. “S’long as you come back to me, love.”

Harry chuckles wetly at that, wiping at beneath his eyes. “Yes, of course, always.”

Anne and Robin step towards them now, clearly ready to hug Harry goodbye since he’s already cutting it close. They all give Harry one last hug and promises to call are echoed along with wishes of good luck.

Harry grabs the handle of his luggage and looks over at Louis one last time before heading through security. “I love you, I’ll talk to you soon.”

“Love you too,” Louis says, stretching up onto his tippy toes one last time to press a kiss to Harry’s mouth. “You be careful over there in England okay? I hear they’re not that nice over there so watch where you’re walking, Bambi, don’t want to bump into anyone.”

Harry kisses him back, a smile on his lips, and Louis’ chest feels so heavy and so light at the same time. He feels like he could crumble under the pressure of being without Harry for so long but he feels so fortunate to even have this at all. Feels so fortunate to know what it feels like to watch the love of your life walking towards a gate to get on a plane to another country and knowing that it’ll be okay.

Louis places his hand on Robin’s shoulder. “Alright, let’s get out of here, since he got us up so Goddamn early to see him off we should at least get some breakfast out of it.”

“You know, I could go for some waffles,” Robin says, placing his hand on Anne’s lower back and leading them all back towards the parking garage.

Later on, in the diner on the way back to North Bay, Louis scribbles on the back of his gum wrapper from earlier. It’s just six months.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥ September, 2022 ♥

It’s a mid-September day and Louis has spent all Saturday lying around in bed. Harry has to work on Saturdays, gets Mondays off instead which is a bit odd. So Louis has been binge watching every stand-up comedy Netflix has up that has more than 3 stars. He’d doesn’t have to work late on Saturdays, so he should be home around 5:00PM, which is 1:00PM here, which is only a half hour away.

Louis’ been getting antsy in their apartment without Harry lately, misses him like crazy. He tries to remind himself that they’re past the halfway point, that Harry had left three and a half months ago and will be home soon but he can’t help but pity himself. Wishes Harry didn’t have to miss Halloween and Thanksgiving, but is so thankful he’ll be with him by December. In time for the holidays and Louis’ birthday.

Louis gets up and showers, is walking around their bedroom when the all too familiar sound of a Skype call rings out from his laptop. He jumps onto his bed in just his boxers and answers the call, excited to talk to Harry after his two busy days.

“Hi baby,” Harry’s voice comes over the speakers before the picture shows up. When it does Harry is sitting in an office, a pair of glasses on his face barely hiding the bags under his eyes.

“Are you still at the office?” Louis asks, settling against their headboard and pulling the laptop into place.

“Didn’t want to miss our Skype date, but yeah, I’ m working on a piece with Chelsea and it’s taking a bit longer than usual. Have to get it to print for Tuesday so we’ll be here for a little bit longer,” Harry shrugs his shoulders, as if to say what can you do? But his voice is rough and he’s yawning into the back of his hand.

“I’m sorry, babe,” Louis says, “wish there was something I could do to help.”

Harry reaches out towards his computer screen and Louis imagines that he’s reaching out to stroke his face. “How many days until I get to come home?”

“Just 2 and half months, love, you’ll be back in this bed with me in no time.”

“Can’t believe how much I miss you. Can’t believe we used to whine about not seeing eachother for a week or two during finals back when I was still in high school.”

Louis chuckles at that, remembers the dramatic texts they’d send each other about how they were going crazy without each other. His heart swells in his chest a bit when he thinks about the fact that they’ve been together for six years and yet they still hate to be apart. Can’t help but feel relieved that he has something to miss.

“Miss you so much H, wish I could crawl right through this screen.”

“I miss you too, baby,” Harry says, eyes wandering over his computer screen and mouthing silently at someone. “I’m sorry, Lou, I gotta go finish this story. I can Facetime you before bed tonight though, if you don’t mind?”

“Course not, love. Go work hard. I’ll be here when you get back.”

And he knows Harry knows what he means. That he’ll answer the phone tonight, and tomorrow night, and every night after that- regardless of where the two of them are. Of how far apart their work takes them.

Louis blows a kiss at the screen and closes out of Skype. He reaches over to their nightstand and grabs a piece of gum. Tastes the familiar mint on his lips and tries not to focus so much on missing Harry. But he can tell he feels emotional, feels like closing his eyes and listening to some records and making art. So he throws on his jacket and heads over to his study, focuses on the canvas instead. Knows that Harry will still be there to miss when he gets back home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥ November, 2022 ♥

Sometimes Harry thought the past six months were never going to end, that he’d be living in England forever and never get to see Louis’ face again. But now that he’s walking off the airplane and back at Logan Airport he feels like it was just the other day that he was boarding a plane. It’s been six months, and his hair is a bit longer, and sometimes he calls jeans trousers now, but more or less nothing’s changed.

The biggest difference is how he feels right now. Last time he’d been boarding his place he was so full of worry and anxiety and doubt and now he’s just tired and excited and so so in need of Louis’ arms around him.

He makes his way through the airport for a few minutes before he sees Louis. Standing right where he left them. He stops walking and takes him in for a second. It’s not like they haven’t spent the past half a year with their faces glued to Facetime and Skype, but it’s so different to see him in person. He looks amazing. He looks tired and soft, his beard a little scruffier than Harry remembers it being, his hair a lot shorter.

Louis’ smiling at him from where he’s waiting and he makes a come here motion with his index finger and with that Harry is walking full speed towards him. He lets go of his luggage a few feet before Louis, fully expecting it when Louis jumps onto him, legs wrapping around his waist in that cliche way that Louis had said they would when Harry had left him.

“Ello, Love.” Harry whispers into Louis’ hair, “You look proper fit, can’t wait to snog you.”

Louis leans back and scoffs, “Ugh, that’s terrible Haz, please don’t even joke about having that awful accent.” And then they’re kissing.

And Harry remembers the first time they ever kissed, sitting in Louis’ old car over six years ago. His palms had been sweaty then and he’d been so nervous. Nervous that Louis wouldn’t want to kiss him or that he’d want to kiss him in a way he didn’t like. Remembers thinking that kissing was all about practice, about making it work between two people .And then they had kissed. And Harry had been amazed that Louis knew how to kiss him in ways he hadn’t even known he’d like to be kissed.

And here they are, making a scene at an airport, and Louis is kissing him just the way he likes. Even after so many weeks apart. So many months of chewing at his bottom lip and missing Louis like you miss a phantom limb.

"Missed you so much ,” Louis says, pulling his body down from Harry’s but wrapping his arms around him instead. Pulling him close.

“God, I missed you too, can’t wait to get home,” Harry says, pulling away from Louis and heading towards the parking garage- Louis’ hand in one hand and his luggage in the other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

♥ February, 2023 ♥

Harry’s waiting for his windshield to defrost in the characteristically cold February evening when his phone starts ringing. He knows it’s Louis from the ringtone he had set for himself on Harry’s phone years ago - Hailey Reinhart’s version of _Can’t Help Falling in Love_ that had gotten him mocked by both Gems and Niall on more than one occasion.

“Hey Lou,” Harry says, finally starting his car now that he can see through the window.

“Hi love, have you left work yet?” Louis asks. They’re supposed to be meeting back at their place soon so that they can head into the North End for dinner tonight.

“Just leaving now, you home yet?”

“Actually, I’m still at the studio, figured you could just come pick me up here and we could head over?” Louis’ clearly got his hands full, Harry can hear him banging around in his gallery.

“Yeah, no biggie, I’ll be there in a bit.”

“Great, love you, see you soon!”

“Love you too, Lou.”

Louis’ studio isn’t anything too crazy, a small room he’d rented in a little plaza that he can use to showcase his and other local artists’ art. He rents the room out for fundraisers and conferences to make some extra money aside from his sales. It was a rocky year or so, back when Harry was still in college and they were struggling a bit financially. But with Harry’s new job and Louis getting the hang of things it’s become a huge part of Louis’ life.

Harry’s a bit confused when he walks in, wondering where all of the sculptures from last weeks show have disappeared to. But then he realizes that there are twinkly white lights framing all four walls and he thinks that Louis must be working on something new. The room is empty and that means he must be in the small closet-like office in the other room so Harry decides to wait for him out here. He doesn’t want to rush him.

He starts to snoop around the room looking at the new exhibit. It’s a bit minimalistic for Louis’ tastes and he wonders if he had rented out the space for a week and forgotten to mention it to Harry. Or if Harry had forgotten he had mentioned it.

There’s simple wooden pictures frames on all four walls, evenly placed and highlighted by the string of lights twinkling down on the them. He starts over at the left wall and sees that there’s small pictures inside the frame, little drawing on wrinkled white paper.

The first frame has a ballpoint pen doodle of two boys, both shaking hands in front of a few lockers. Harry feels something settle in his chest and he walks over to the next frame. The same wrinkled paper is in the center of the glass and Harry’s heart stutters in his chest when he realizes that the drawings are on the inside of old gum wrappers. This drawing is of two boys kissing in the front of a car, a house sketched into the background with a tiny figure peeking out from behind the living room curtains.

Harry starts to walk to each frame a little faster, looking at the drawings Louis has done for him. There’s still about eight frames left when Harry can hear the music coming from Louis’ office get a bit louder. Gentle strumming of a guitar filling out into the space. And Harry isn’t sure if he’s supposed to be looking at these without Louis out here, but he can’t tear his eyes away.

There’s a sketch of Harry cheering at one of Louis’ baseball games, Louis’ up at bat. Another of them holding hands, the lake they’d spent that first summer at in the background. There’s another one of them laying out beneath the stars, both figures all wrapped up in each other.

He walks over to the next wall and laughs at the first frame. It’s a sketch of the two of them dancing in their first living room, Harry in nothing but a pair of boxers and a record player in the background. The next one is Louis holding up two concert tickets, snow falling all around the two of them.

His breath catches a bit at the next wall, and he has to wipe at his eyes when he sees a little ballpoint pen plane flying away, Louis waving from the ground below. He chuckles wetly at the next sketch, Louis’ legs wrapped around his in the middle of the airport with other little figures all cooing at them. He walks over to the last one, wondering what the last big moment was that Louis had sketched on the back of one of Harry’s gum wrappers.

He brings his hand to his mouth when he sees it. A simple little drawing of Louis down on one knee, a twinkly ring in his hand as he proposes Harry. He’s bringing his hand out to touch the glass when he hears someone clear their throat behind him.

He turns around to see Louis on one knee. The same boy that had stopped for him in the hallway one day nearly seven years ago. The same boy that has been through so much with Harry, so many memories that it would be impossible to sketch them all. The man he hopes is about to ask him to marry him.

“Harry,” Louis says, smiling up at him but trying to keep his tone serious.

Harry lets out a giggle, the tears that were inevitable finally starting to fall from his eyes. “Yes, baby?”

“When I met you all those years back, I knew you were going to be something special to me. I didn’t know how special, but I knew it was going to be something big. I remember sitting in my car after our first date and wondering what it was you were supposed to be bringing into my life. I wasn’t sure back then if you were supposed to break my heart for the first time, or teach me something, or set me on a different path in my life, but I knew it was going to be something important.”

Louis pulls the ring from his suit jacket pocket then, lifts the top off the box and holds his hand out to Harry.

“I wish I could go back in time and slap myself upside the head for ever doubting us. Because what we’ve been through, what our love has already held up against, is not something I’ve ever doubted since. You’re the love of my life, Bambi, and I’m pretty sure you’re the love of every Goddamn life I’ll ever live. I’m not sure how I got so lucky to live this version though, the one where I fell in love with the greatest man I know, who still blushes every time I call him babe, who gets hard when I talk about the babies I’m going to give him,”

Harry cuts him off at that, eyes wide and comical. “Louuuu,” he whines.

“Sorry, love. What I’m trying to say is I love you so much and I want to spend every day of my life making you smile. I want to spend every day of my life making art from the memories we make together. You make me feel so much and I cannot thank you enough for that, for making me feel, for loving me so much. Will you marry me?”

“Fuck, of course I will, baby,” Harry says, surging forward when Louis stands up and pulling him in for a passionate kiss.

They stand there kissing in the dimly lit room, the lights trained on the memories they’ve made in the past seven years. Louis pulls back eventually, grabs Harry’s left hand with his own and slides the simple engagement band onto his ring finger.

Harry’s giggling into his other hand while Louis places kisses all over the ring.

“Can’t believe I’m so lucky, that I’m going to get to marry you.”

Harry breathes easily at Louis’ words. Marriage for them had always been a definite, been inevitable. But to be able to say it now, with such certainty, is a feeling that Harry will have to get used to. He reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out his gum, can feel Louis’ smiling at him even without looking.

He holds the pack out, offering his fiance a piece. “It’s no ring, but it’s the least I could offer.”

“It’d be rude not to.”

**Author's Note:**

> And that's it. I hope you enjoyed it if you made it this far. Please feel free to leave kind comments and criticisms if you have any, and kudos are always appreciated!


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